Gradient kicks off with a four-track release from yours truely and remixer Cassegrain. Beyond Horizon builds into a flurry of whirring metallic noises and mind-massaging squelches, with throbbing bass tones permeating the disorientating wall of sound. Art vs War brings drunken bassline funk, with warped synth growls and dusty percussion punctuating.
Around The Vines is a less thumping affair, but its incessant rapid- fire synth arpeggios are equally hypnotic, paired with ticking percussive rhythms and pulsing sub bass. Cassegrain’s remix of Around The Vines underpins the aforementioned synth refrain with a thundering tribal tom rhythm and builds the intensity further through a metallic military snare roll.
It’s been a long Berlin winter and I’ve spent the past months in the studio recording new material. I’ve dedicated this time in the studio to recover from a big loss last November when I lost all of my productions including the album I was working on, all of my Sample Libraries, my Live Set, USBS & all of my unreleased tracks that I’ve worked on the past 4 years in Berlin were stolen from me. This was at the beginning of my US tour in San Francisco last November and since then I have not been able to recover anything from that loss.
I wish to thank my Bay Area community & Berlin network for all for the kind support I’ve received in all ways during this past winter – your comments gave me strength that helped keep me going just when I wanted to quit. From the donations I was able to purchase a new laptop so I could immediately start the process of rebuilding. Now I have had the winter to focus on re-designing my sound and production process. Its been a huge challenge to overcome the reality of this as well as been a very inspiring time to re-invent myself and start the next chapter. For starters, I’ve re-approached my track making process – instead of relying on my finely crafted Kick & Percussion recordings, excessive VSTS, Templates that were very close to me – I‘ve been focused on make everything from scratch attitude and on the fly recording whether its with an in the box VST or some outboard analogue gear – I’m focused with a more Live hands on approach for all processes.
The only track that I was able to recover from this time period was an unreleased track saved on my Iphone – This track is titled ‘For Every Wish’ and I’m giving it away for free as a thank you for all of the help & support through the years – especially during this recovery process this past winter.
I still believe that it’s not entirely about what gear you use or how many analogue hardware synths you own – but it’s how you use it and what you make of it. Focus more on what you are trying to say than rather what you are using to make it. What brings us down only makes us stronger.
-J
‘For Every Wish’ Written & Produced by Jamaica Suk.
